


Close the door and be coy with me

by Jalec



Category: Shadowhunters, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Comfort, Fluff, M/M, Pain, Physical Pain, jalec - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-05-20
Packaged: 2018-06-09 14:36:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6911194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jalec/pseuds/Jalec
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec is in pain. Jace applies the iratze.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Close the door and be coy with me

**Author's Note:**

> Not platonic.

“An _iratze_ should fix it.”

Alec sighed. “I don’t know. I think I’m just tired.”

“Well it can’t hurt to try. Sit,” Jace said, pointing to Alec’s bed. He turned on his heels and closed the bedroom door.

Alec queried Jace with a look, still standing.

Jace didn’t answer; he just put a hand on Alec’s shoulder and nudged him back, not so that Alec fell in some drastic fashion, but so that he folded back on the bed and landed in a sitting position. “I said sit.”

“I can draw my own runes,” Alec said, going to take the stele from his pocket when he winced and grabbed his right arm.

Jace looked immediately concerned. “You’re not just exhausted,” he said, to which Alec responded by giving the blond boy an irked look. “What happened? Was it on the mission? Did the demon get you?”

“No. I’m _fine_ ,” Alec barked, rolling his eyes. It was almost impossible to lie to one’s parabatai; especially when that parabatai was the great Shadowhunter Jace, as determined as he was beautiful. “It just knocked me a bit.”

“What’s a bit?” Jace said, folding his arms. For once, he was taller than Alec. Not towering, like when Alec stood over a sitting Jace, but still taller, and he liked it.

“Over…into the ground.” Alec sighed. “Hard,” he admitted begrudgingly.

Jace looked over Alec’s arms and saw that there were barely any places to mark Alec with a new rune. He planned on making it large, so that it was stronger and its power dispersed quicker. And also so that Alec had a few more seconds of _sizzling_ to think about how unwise it was to lie to Jace about being injured.

“Right, arms up,” the blond boy commanded.

Alec rolled his eyes once again and slowly began to move his arms until they were hovering above his head. Jace bent over slightly so that he could grab the hem of Alec’s shirt and pull it up over his head. His fingers grazed some skin near Alec's treasure trail, which caused Alec to divert his eyes away from what Jace was doing. Not doing so might have seemed too... _intimate_.

The tight joints of the shirt pulled against Alec's sore arm, despite Jace trying to be as gentle as possible. "Gently," said the dark haired boy. Unfortunately for Alec, today was the one day the he decided not to wear a button up shirt. Although, that have might been more awkward if it meant Jace had to undo all those finicky little buttons up close and personal while Alec winced and groaned.

Jace finally managed to remove the shirt, leaving Alec’s torso exposed. Cold air tickled his bare parts and he felt slightly uncomfortable.

“Your hair hasn’t moved an inch. Impressive. 'S all that gel.”

Alec folded his arms over, partly to ease the pain in his elbow, but also to cover himself up. There was no reason for him to be embarrassed around Jace. He was both attractive and fit, not that Jace would have minded if he weren’t; they were best friends and had a relationship built on more than something as mundane as appearance. But Alec’s feelings for Jace complicated things; they made him feel more vulnerable than someone not burdened by such complications.

Jace moved around to the other side of the bed. Before he sat down, he took off his jacket and his boots and drew his stele from his cargo pants pocket.

Alec’s back was to him, flawless and pale and unmarked by runes like most shadowhunters' were. Jace had often thought about this—how shadowhunters had a common practice usually performed solo which could very well become intimate if done between two people—not necessarily with Alec in mind, but that was not to say that his parabatai had never been the subject of the occasional erotic thought.

Jace raised his hand and placed it just under Alec’s left shoulder blade. It sent a shiver up Alec’s spine and made him straighten up his posture.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Your hands are just cold,” Alec said. His voice was softer than usual.

“Brace yourself.” Jace spoke softly now too, as if he were following Alec’s lead.

Alec tensed his muscles in preparation for the burning sensation.

The end of Jace’s stele glowed. He put it up to Alec’s back, close to his right shoulder blade, close enough to his heart where it would be more effective—and hurt more. Alec could feel the heat that radiated off it. It made him pull forward, away from the discomfort. It was easy to do this yourself, but being at the mercy of someone else made it slightly harder to sit still.

“Not there,” Alec said. His left hand crawled over his skin, under his right arm, and pointed to the spot on his back which was where his lower right lung would be visible if he had transparent skin. “Here.” It was still close enough to Alec's heart, but in a place that he thought was better. 

Jace didn’t do it purposefully, but his left hand temporarily moved from Alec’s shoulder blade and caressed the place softly, as if he was brushing something away.

Alec felt the heat of the stele near him again, this time by the newly designated spot. He clenched his eyes and waited.

The feeling of being runed was not unlike having someone trace their finger over a bad sunburn; it pained when it was touched, then when the finger was removed it felt cool immediately, but a few seconds later it would start to burn again of its own accord, having now being disturbed. Once it became clear to the stele which rune the shadowhunter was drawing, the pain usually faded to a dull, hot ache, but in the  _iratze's_ case, the irony was that the healing rune had to inflict more pain before it could begin to mend any injury. It was the same when drawing something which did not resemble a rune; the stele did not appreciate it, so it would burn.

The _iratze_  was started with a long vertical stroke.

“That’s—argh—a little big, isn’t it?”

“That’s what you get when you lie to me,” Jace said, still speaking softly. Then he added a shorter diagonal line through the stroke.

Alec grunted and ground his teeth together.

“Sorry. I shouldn't have made it..."

“Just finish it,” Alec said. Jace drew another line, making Alec keel over again. “ _Seriously?_ How big is it? They don’t normally hurt this much, even near to—”

“They shouldn’t hurt _that_ much more just because they’re bigger,” Jace protested.

“Well it _really_ hurts.” There was silence for a matter of moments. “It’s probably the bond. You—me. We’re just too close. The pain’s doubled…echoed.”

“We’ll I’ve started it now and you can’t finish it yourself, now can you? Do you want me to get Izzy or Cl—”

“No.” Alec’s response was swift and definitive. “Just keep going.”

“I don’t want to hurt you, Alec.”

“You’d never hurt me.” It was a choice of words inspired by that which Alec kept buried deep inside, the thing that he didn't talk with Jace about, despite Jace being the fuel for the fire that kept said thing alive.

Jace did not know how to respond. All he could do was smile. He knew Alec trusted him, but it was nice to hear it aloud. Alec heard Jace's lips curl into the smile, and hid a smile of his own. He liked the idea of Jace being coy.

Jace held the stele back up and said, “Let me finish.”

“Go.”

Alec felt the warmth radiating against his skin, then the burn as the stele was pushed closer, but also something else; something soft cool rubbing up and down his back and gently breezing coolness over the pain. He pondered what is was for a moment, before he spoke.

“What—”

Jace shushed Alec before he could finish the sentence. He continued to draw the rune, moving his cold hand around Alec's back as he did so.

It was simple and something that should not have done anything, but Alec winced and groaned that little bit less when Jace's touch was there on his body.

Alec shivered when Jace's hand skimmed over his oblique. It was a sensation he'd not felt before, not from someone else, at least, which was so different to when he touched himself there while taking off his shirt or drawing a rune. It sent thoughts through his mind about their parabatai ceremony, when the two drew their parabatai runes on the space between each other's hips and lower abdomens; how Jace had knelt down and made Alec lift his shirt up; how he hooked a finger under Alec's belt and pulled Alec's waistband down farther than it probably needed to go.

“The last bit,” Jace said. The last line was always the worst. It was the loop back over, or in the _iratze's_  case, the line that broke through all others, and the lock which sealed the rune. It went over all the other lines, once again marking the skin that had already been made tender.

Alec drew a deep breath, and Jace drew the final line. A pained sound escaped Alec's lips. Jace continued to move his hand around, bringing it down into the small of Alec's back, then with more strength upwards so that Alec tipped forward slightly.

Jace bowed himself forward too, and wet his pastel pink lips with his tongue. He took his hand off Alec's back and replaced it with soft, cool lips against the finished rune, making Alec inhale erratically when the dark haired boy realised what it was. He felt no pain there, even when Jace removed his lips.

Alec turned slowly, already feeling better in his arm, and for some reason, more confident. Jace's gaze was right there, waiting for him, looking at Alec exactly how the dark haired boy had always hoped he would.

Jace's eyes were beautiful, but Alec's attention fell from them, down to the lips that had just kissed his body. He wondered what else Jace could do with them.

**Author's Note:**

> "Runes placed by your parabatai didn’t hurt. In fact they were almost pleasant—it was like being wrapped with protection and friendship..."
> 
> Thank you, Emma Carstairs and Cassandra Clare, for completely ruining my fic idea.
> 
> Never mind. Let's just call this fic canon divergent. After all, the show is changing things. Like Jace and Alec's parabatai rune location. ;)


End file.
